The Association of COVID-19 Fear, Age, Economic Anxiety with Life Satisfaction in Syrian Refugees: The Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Life satisfaction is about evaluating life quality. COVID-19 fear affecting individuals’ well-being might cause negativities. COVID-19 fear and life satisfaction were examined with many variables, such as distress, well-being, and mental health. Focusing on the social work perspective, this study aims to examine COVID-19 fear’s indirect effect on life satisfaction through economic anxiety, which is important for refugees and not previously considered. It also aims to examine how this indirect effect varies depending on the age. Between July 2021 and June 2022, 615 Syrian refugees from Turkey participated in this cross-sectional study. This study used the Hayes’ PROCESS macro. The results showed that the COVID-19 fear’s negative indirect effect on life satisfaction through economic anxiety is statistically significant. Furthermore, moderated mediation analysis revealed that the negative indirect effect varies depending on the refugees’ age, and this effect becomes stronger as age increases. Therefore, policymakers need to consider the age and situations that may cause economic anxiety, such as uninsured employment and easy dismissal refugees often encounter, in social work policies. In future studies, different variables related to the crisis might be discussed within various perspectives on similar crises.